This document provides guidance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on using Twitter effectively for business purposes. It discusses creating a Twitter account and profile, personalizing it with a photo and bio, finding people and organizations to follow, engaging with your audience by tweeting regularly, and getting others to follow your business's account. The goal is to build your network and brand on Twitter while conveying a casual, conversational tone.
2. 2
Get Started
Understand how Twitter works so your business can actively and
effectively join the conversation.
1 - Creating a Twitter account
- Personalize your profile
- Start Tweeting
3. Access Twitter’s website by 3
Creating a Twitter account typing the following address in
your web browser:
http://twitter.com
Company account: Represents the company as a
whole. Use this type of account to:
• Keep your customer base up‐to‐date on your
events
• Promote recent blog articles or news
• Update your consumers about products/services
• Give real‐time updates at conferences and
events
4. DO!
Ideas for Twitter Handles: 4
1) Your full company’s name (i.e. BerrisSA)
2) A variation of your name (i.e. Berris)
3) A combination of your products and your company (i.e. BerrisCookies)
Making your Twitter handle as close to your company’s name as possible will make it easier for people to
recognize you at a conference or event.
Using your real company’s name on Twitter helps your company looks like real and authentic.
DON’T Don’t make your Twitter handle something completely random (i.e. CatWoman).
This is a lost branding opportunity for you and your company.
!
Don’t use numbers (i.e. DMOD123). Unless there is a reason for the specific
numbers, it looks juvenile. It also conjures the old AOL chat room days. It gives you
the appearance that you aren’t putting thought into your username.
Don’t use an underscore (i.e. DMOD_Lab). Using an underscore generally is never
done. Use at risk of seeming unaware of the “social norms.”
5. Adding your interests and your friends 5
Find
people &
companies
Follow a
profile List of profiles
that you follow
You can now start to customize your profile. Twitter will suggest you topics that might
interest you, and you can also search for other topics. To follow a profile, click on the
“follow” icon next to it. If you change your mind, simply click on the “following/unfollow”
icon.
6. 6
After you choose your handle and click “Next,” it will bring you to a screen asking to check if
your email contacts are already on Twitter. If you have a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo or AOL
account, feel free to see if anyone you know is already signed up. (However, this is not a
required step. Feel free to skip.) If you do decide to check, beware of the prompt asking if
you’d like to invite them all to Twitter. This will send a message all your contacts. Only do
this if you want to.
7. 7
Confirming your account!
You should now have received an email from Twitter to confirm your email address. To
finalize your account, make sure you confirm it by clicking on the link you were sent.
8. Design every element of your profile 8
Personalize your profile to best reflect your business. Your
name, bio, website and profile picture
should all work together to tell your
story.
With millions of accounts already activated, to stand out
from the crowd, you must create an original account to
attract followers.
3
1. Click on the “Profile” thumbnail and select a picture
from your computer that will be used as your profile
1 picture, for instance the logo of your company.
2. Write a few words about your company in the “Bio”
field. Remember this can only be up to 160 characters.
Write about your business, the kind of messages you will
post and about yourself. Keep it short and appealing.
2
Having a well-written, appealing bio is very important.
It is generally the first piece of information other users
will see.
3. When you are done, click on “Done”.
9. In the top right corner of the main
page, you can see an “gear” icon. 9
Clicking on this opens a
menu, click on “Edit profile”.
Your profile is where you can reference your company, your blog, talk about your interests and list your location.
The first item in your profile is your name. Always list your real name when using Twitter for business.
You wouldn’t introduce yourself with a fake name at a tradeshow. Why should you do it here?
For your URL, or web address, it’s best practice always to include a link. Put a link to your:
• Company website
• Blog
• Personal website
• LinkedIn Profile
Also make sure to list your location. Many people follow back those located in their geographic area to expand
their local network. Put it in standard City, State format so it can be picked up by lists for your area. Don’t lose
out on this opportunity.
The last option in profile settings is the “Post your Tweets to Facebook”. By clicking this, your Tweets will
automatically post to your Facebook wall.
10. 10
Select a photo of yourself or
We recommend putting your your company’s logo! Avoid
real name in your profile to look like spammers!
List your City and State. This
is a great opportunity to Be descriptive in your bio.
connect with people in your Put your company’s
geographic area. name, your position or
hobbies.
We recommend to click this
Add your blog or company button that will allow you to
website here. If you don’t quickly and easily link your
have one, list the address to Twitter account to your
your LinkedIn profile. Facebook account. The
button, when clicked, will ask
you to enter your Facebook
credentials and then link the
two accounts, allowing your
Tweets to cross-post to
Facebook as status updates.
11. 11
To further personalize the look of your Twitter profile, go to the Design to create a customized
theme or background. Play with the different colors that represent your company’s logo!
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Establishing guidelines
By now, your Twitter account has a nice customized outlook and is
ready to be shown to the world. Because Twitter users need to keep
interacting with each other, it is important that there is always
someone in your company managing your Twitter account and its
updates. If more than one person is in charge of updating your posts
on Twitter, you need to establish clear guidelines in order to ensure
consistency in the tone and the type of information you want to
share. Furthermore, you need to keep a log of your posts – or “Tweets
– to prevent the posting of the same piece of information several
times or that some are never published.
13. Bring your account to life 13
Over time, your Tweets will convey your own voice and style. Don’t be afraid to let your
personality come through, or that of your employees. Of course, business styles vary. As you
keep using Twitter, you’ll find your voice.
It’s very likely that your employees are tweeting from their own personal accounts. As a
business owner, you can retweet or mention them when what they are tweeting about meshes
nicely with your business’ interests and goals.
When you’re
tweeting on behalf
of your
company, write in a
casual and friendly
tone.
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Start Tweeting
Types of tweets:
1) An observation: Tweet about what you’re doing, thinking or feeling
2) What you’re reading: Post a link to an interesting blog post or news article
3) What you’re watching: Post a link to a cool video from Hulu or YouTube
4) What events you’re going to: Share a link to the next conference you plan to attend
5) Promote your content: Post a link to your most recent company or personal blog article
6) Promote someone else’s content: Post a link to someone else’s blog article as a helpful resource
7) Chat with someone: Send messages using an @ sign (to be explained later)
8) Retweet what someone else has said: Retweet (using RT or Retweet in the beginning of the
message) to repeat what someone else has said
Remember that everything you say is public! Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say at a networking
event. Even if you delete a tweet, it might still be archived on the Internet and could be found.
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2
1
3
Start tweeting by typing into message box (1) or by clicking the blue button on the right
top of your page (2) and then type into message box (3).
Tweet what you’re thinking/ doing/ observing/ reading etc.
16. Anatomy of a Tweet 16
Tweets are the building blocks of your communications on Twitter. You’ll be surprised by
how much you can say with 140 characters or less.
1 2
A direct message
(DM) is a private
message. You can
only send a DM to
individuals you
follow who also
5 follow you.
4
3
3. REPLY
1. HASHTAG
You can respond to a Tweet by hitting the reply button. When you
A hashtag is any word beginning with the # sign.
reply, your response is public, and will show up in your home
People use hashtags to organize conversations
timeline and the timeline of the person to whom you are responding.
around a specific topic. Clicking on a hashtag
The reply will also be visible in the home timelines of people who
takes you to search results for that term.
follow both you and the person to whom you sent the reply.
2. MENTION
Meaning, someone not in the conversation has to follow both of the
Sometimes you want to bring a Tweet to
people replying to be able to read both sides of the conversation.
someone’s attention, but you still want all of your
4. RETWEET
followers to see the message. So instead of a
You can pass along someone’s Tweet by retweeting it. Just hit the
reply, use a mention. Include the @username of
retweet button to send the original message to all of your followers.
whomever you want to mention in your
5. LINKS
Tweet, and it will appear in the Mentions section
Twitter’s link-shortening feature allows you to paste a link of any
(in the Connect tab). All @username mentions are
length into the Tweet box and it will automatically be shortened to
clickable and link back to the mentioned
19 characters. This makes it easier to fit long URLs into the 140
individual’s profile. character limit.
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Engage your audience
The right content converts people into customers, and turns
customers into advocates.
2 - Find people to follow
- Get people to follow you
- Your voice
- Make it a habit
- Tweet something sharable
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Find people to follow
Building your network is the most challenging and time‐consuming
part of using Twitter. Expanding your network doesn’t happen
immediately; you need to commit and take the time to use Twitter
effectively. By following people, you will receive their updates on a
regular basis in your Twitter stream. This is your chance to learn about
their lives, check out the blog posts they are reading and meet the
people they interact with. Following a good‐sized community can be
valuable and fun!
19. 19
But where can you find people you would want to follow?
Search keywords Use advanced search to
Select People results to Follow and learn from
associated with your limit the results to a
see a list of accounts that other businesses
business location
match your search
You can save
your searches by
clicking on the
options wheel
and choosing
“save search.”
Your saved
searches are
available
anytime.
When you first join Twitter, it’s a good idea to follow and observe businesses similar to yours to
see what they are doing well, and to learn from their mistakes.
“To follow” someone means that you are subscribing to their stream of Tweets, and will
automatically receive their Tweets in your timeline. When someone follows you, your Tweets
will show up in their timeline. Twitter has an asymmetrical follower model, which means that
you do not need to “approve” of the people who follow you, and they do not need to “approve”
of you. However, you will likely want to follow back most of the people who follow your
business. This acknowledges them, and enables them to send you direct messages.
20. DO!
20
Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com): This free resource is a search function that helps
you find people who are tweeting about specific words. For example, you can find people who
have tweeted about “public relations.” Follow people talking about the topics you enjoy.
Also, use Twitter Search to see who has tweeted about your company.
Follow People Your Followers are Following: Once you begin receiving updates from a
handful of people, watch to see whom those people chat with using an @reply. Maybe that
person would be fun to follow as well!
Follow Thought Leaders and Bloggers: See if any of your favorite bloggers are on Twitter.
Many bloggers include a link to their Twitter account in their sidebar or personal info section
on their website.
Collect People’s Twitter Names at Events: Many social media people will include their Twitter
handle on their nametag at an event. Write down their names and follow them later. You can
find their Twitter account by adding their handle to the end of http://twitter.com/USERNAME.
Follow Hashtags (#) at Events: At many events, the organizer will establish a hashtag (i.e.
#IMS08 was the 2008 Inbound Marketing Summit), so anyone tweeting at the event can
include the hashtag (#) in their Tweet. Follow those people who are at the same event as you
who you may not have met in person yet.
21. DON’T!
21
Don’t follow too many people at once: Best practice is to follow no more than 25‐50 people a
day, because there will be a time gap between following people and having them follow you
back. If your profile says you are following 2,000 people and only 30 followers have followed
you back so far, it appears that 1970 of those who you followed chose not to follow you back.
This unfavorable ratio makes you look like a bad person to add to one’s network. Wait a little
bit to give people the chance to follow you back before finding a new batch of people to add
to your network.
Don’t follow hundreds of people at once and remove all who don’t follow you back:
Although many people do this in order to have a “valuable ratio” (or more followers than
people you’re following), it is artificial network building and not a best practice.
22. 22
Get people to follow you
Following people and receiving their updates is great, but in order to
have valuable two‐way conversations, you need people to follow you
back and receive your updates too. This is why it is so important to get
your profile fully set up before reaching out for new connections. If you
follow someone who doesn’t already know you, you need to have
sufficient information about you in your profile so that person can make
the decision whether to follow you back or not.
Having followers is important, because they are your network who will
see your tweets. Think of your total number of followers as your Twitter
reach.
23. DO!
23
Make your company’s Twitter usernames easy to find. Create a page that lists all the
Twitter handles of the people in your company. By giving your customers an easy way to
interact with individual people, it helps them get to know the type of people who work at
your company. It also gives insight to your brand!
Make your tweets useful resources so people need you. You are what you tweet. People
will want to follow you if they think they will get value from your content. You want to avoid
making your Twitter account purely a promotional tool. Would you subscribe to a newsletter
if it didn’t have anything useful to say? What specialty knowledge do you have that you can
share?
Interact with those people you follow who don’t follow you back yet. Make sure to
monitor your Twitter stream, and comment on what people are saying. Give feedback;
compliment people. The key is to engage.
24. 24
Your voice
Too often, businesses are
Be yourself.
overly formal on Twitter.
Your Tweets should
reflect your personality.
People respond best to
friendly, conversational
Give them Tweets.
something more.
Use Twitter to convey
insights and
information about
your company that
your customers can’t
find elsewhere.
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Your Voice
Be responsive.
Reply when people tweet about you. Favorite and retweet positive messages, and
thank those who are praising you. Promptly address critical Tweets about your
business.
Some conversations need to be taken offline. If there is too much back and forth
between you and your customer, or the exchanges become too specific for your
timeline, ask the follower to send you a direct message (DM) with contact
information so you can communicate further by email or phone.
Download Twitter for your mobile device at twitter.com/download so
TIP you can stay engaged with your customers on the go.
26. 26
Make it a habit
People wonder how often they should tweet, but there isn’t one “right” answer. Tweeting
every five minutes might be too often and tweeting only weekly is very likely too infrequent.
At first, make a goal of tweeting once a day. Over time, you’ll see what works best for the
amount of content you want to share and for your particular business.
Small ideas work as
well as big ones for
tweeting. You
might retweet
someone, thank a
customer or talk
about what’s
happening in your
community.
Just because Twitter happens in real time, it doesn’t mean you can’t look ahead.
Think about your important upcoming events — product launches, holidays or
seasonal events — and see how you can incorporate Twitter into your plans.
Follow reporters and news outlets that cover your topics, and retweet
TIP their relevant comments and insights. Not only will you provide
interesting content to your followers; some of those reporters will
follow you back.
27. 27
Understand why people share
Tweet something sharable things to create better Tweets.
People tend to share INCLUDE A PHOTO
positive Tweets that A descriptive Tweet with a photo will not only get clicks, it will inspire retweets. Think
solve a of the words in the Tweet as a setup and the photo as the punchline.
problem, answer a
question, entertain QUESTION + ANSWER
or inspire. On Pose a question in your Tweet and then answer it with a link. For example:
Twitter, we see the - “What are the top ten reasons that people buy a new car? Answer: link to a blog
most retweeted
content tends to
post about the subject.”
contain - “Who wore it best? Fashion experts explain: link to fashion website or magazine.”
links, photos, videos - “Improve your golf swing in ten minutes! Here’s how: link to professional golfer’s
or quotes. When tips and tricks.”
you Tweet
something SHARE VIDEOS ON TWITTER
interesting, it has Add a video to a Tweet automatically by including the URL. Links for YouTube, Vimeo
the potential to
travel to many
and many other services will play directly in an expanded Tweet.
prospective ADD A QUOTE
customers.
Before you write a Inspire your followers with a pertinent quotation from history, literature, pop culture
Tweet, consider
or your own industry. You’ll encourage retweets if you choose a quotation that your
how your followers
will respond. Will followers see as helpful or inspirational for their followers.
they want to
reply, favorite, wat Follow people from outside your industry to get ideas about interesting
ch or share that TIP content. Be sure to give writers credit when repeating their content in a
Tweet? Tweet.
28. 28
Amplify your impact
Grow your audience to extend your reach.
3 - Promote your Twitter @username
- Use your followers to get more followers
- Work with others
- Measure your impact
29. 29
Promote your Twitter
@username
There are many ways to promote your Twitter @username online and offline:
business cards, signage, advertising, delivery vehicles, product
packaging, storefronts, email, your website, etc. Anywhere your customers interact
with your brand is an opportunity to encourage them to follow you on Twitter.
Feature your @username on your website and blog. Visit twitter.com/about/resources
TIP to download Twitter’s logos and see our brand guidelines for use.
30. When your followers retweet 30
Use your followers to get your content -or when they
more followers tweet about you- they extend
your reach to their followers.
Offer an incentive. Create Tweets that encourage your followers to retweet. One simple method is
to announce that you’ll offer a discount to everyone who retweets your
offer, but only if you get a total number of retweets (like 10 or 25).
Offer your customers a reward if they mention your business — a discount, free
trial, or extra service — whatever makes sense for your company. It’s a good
idea to include a link to the terms and conditions of your offer in the Tweet.
If you have a store, ask people show you the Tweet on their phones at
checkout. If you sell online, DM the follower with a discount code that you can
track at checkout.
People are more likely to retweet an offer that provides value to their own
TIP followers.
31. 31
Work with others Connect with other businesses
online.
Create a
conversation.
When the 2010 World Series was played in Arlington, Texas and San
Francisco, California, it was no surprise that the baseball fans from both cities
tweeted up a storm. Surprisingly, so did each city’s major art museum: San
Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art challenged Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art
Museum to a tweet-off. Texas responded, mentioning both baseball teams and
using hashtags that were a part of the larger sports conversation. Then the
competing teams started retweeting the museums’ Tweets, and fans of both
joined in the fun. Through local pride, the museums found common ground
with the ball clubs and the competitive fun that comes with a major league
sport.
32. 32
Measure your impact
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU’RE SUCCESSFUL?
One common way to track success on Twitter is to look at the growth rate of your
follower base. This number shows that you’re increasing your audience -and your
ability to connect with more customers. But there are other indicators of success to
consider:
• See if people are retweeting or favoriting your Tweets.
• Use Google Analytics to see how much traffic is coming from Twitter, which show
up as t.co (this is Twitter’s link-shortening service).
• Create special Twitter-only promotions to bring in new customers, or bring
regulars back more often.
• Finally, ask your customers: Are they following you on Twitter? Do they enjoy it?
By measuring and monitoring your impact on Twitter, you’ll develop more effective
ways to engage your audience, and ultimately grow your business.
We’ll present you a number of monitoring tools that you can use to measure
your Twitter impact in the next Tutorial.
33. 33
Using Twitter
Communication and Marketing.
4 - Twitter for Marketing
- Twitter for Public Relations
- Twitter for Customer Service
34. 34
Twitter for Marketing
1. Use Twitter to drive people to your company’s website. Tweet about interesting resources your
employees have posted on your blog or website. Have you recently published a white paper that people
can download for free? Tweet about it, linking back to the download page on your website. If the content
on your site is truly remarkable, people may start tweeting about it on their own! They can share your
resource to their friends on Twitter.
2. Monitor your brand on Twitter. Using the aforementioned Twitter Search tool, you can search and track
what people are saying about your company, products, competitors or any other hot words in your
industry. Set up an RSS feed to receive all search results in Google Reader. If you find someone tweeting
about your products or a person who is looking for a solution that your product provides, let them know!
3. Use the Twitter “Favorites” feature as a list of company testimonials. To the left of each tweet in your
Twitter stream, there is a little star. When you click the little star, that tweet gets added to your Favorites
Tab. As you track what people are saying about your company in Twitter Search, favorite all of the
positive tweets. Third‐party testimonials are valuable by showing the public what other people think of
your company. The next time someone asks about your company, send them the link to your Favorites
page. The URL for this page will be http://twitter.com/USERNAME/favorites.
35. 35
4. Use Twitter to promote events. Tweet‐ups are a great way to get to know your Twitter community
offline. The next time your company holds an event, fundraiser or open house, tweet about it! Best
practice is to send people directly to an event sign‐up page. Think of a hashtag for your event before you
start tweeting about it. Selecting a hashtag for your own event will be beneficial in a few ways:
a) During the event, people often use the hashtag while live‐tweeting, or tweeting what they see/hear in
real‐time. The hashtag will aggregate the event tweets, building an online conversation around the
event.
b) People who are not at the event will see your hashtag and perhaps use it too. A popular #hashtag
often sparks curiosity, and people will go to http://search.twitter.com to follow the conversation around
the event.
5. Use Twitter to promote new tools. Twitter users love new toys, especially if they create some sort of
outcome, grade or analysis of the person using the tool. Make the results of your tool/grader as easy to
Tweet as possible. Perhaps you could add a “Tweet this grade” function. Make sure your tool is as easy to
share as possible!
6. Establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry. By tweeting about useful resources and
thoughtful tips, you and your company will eventually develop thought leadership, and people will
consider you an expert in that particular subject. Be sure to link to your own resources as well as others.
36. 36
Twitter for Public Relations
1. Develop relationships with reporters, bloggers and other media people through Twitter. Reporters and
big‐time bloggers are incredibly active in social networks, especially when gathering information for
stories. Two resources that have a great list of the media people on Twitter are:
Media Outlets: https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media+Outlets+Using+Twitter
Media People:
https://twitteringjournalists.pbwiki.com/Media+People+Using+Twitter, http://mediaontwitter.pbwiki.co
m
2. Watch for tweets about editorial opportunities. Because the nature of Twitter is very quick‐response, it’s
a great place for media people to look for last‐minute, additional resources for their stories. When
following bloggers and reporters on Twitter, keep close track of their tweets and scan for any
opportunities. It’s also a great idea to send reporters tips to other links and resources simply to be helpful
and improve your relationship with the media person, even if it’s in regard to another company. The
media person will be thankful for your help and more likely use you as a reference when the subject is
applicable to you!
3. Direct Message reporters instead of sending them an email. By sending a direct message, you are forced
to create a short concise pitch that a reporter is more likely to read. Also, direct messages are very
casual, and some media folks prefer DMs to email pitches. Also, it saves you the time it would normally
take to write a lengthy pitch. Remember, you can only DM people if they follow you back. However, don’t
pitch too much; they could easily unfollow you making it much more difficult to connect.
4. Use Twitter to check in on your media person before PR pitching. Check to see what the person you’re
about to pitch is up to before contacting them. In the event that the person is sick, having a bad day or
away on travel—it may be best to contact him or her at another time.
37. 37
Twitter for Customer Service
1. Respond to concerns people tweet about your company or products. Designate a specific person in your
company to track your company name and products in Twitter Search. That person can address any
negative comments, give feedback and help customers solve their products in real time. The speedy
response will impress the customer! Comcast at http://twitter.com/ComcastCares does a great job
tracking and addressing customer concern.
2. Use your company account to update customers with any temporary down‐time. If you work for a
company that offers an online service, let your followers know if you anticipate down‐time or if there is a
glitch you are working to fix. Your customers will be less upset and more appreciative that your company
is trying its best to relieve the problem.
3. Be sure to follow back everyone who follows your Company Account. Although it’s acceptable to pick
and choose whom you want to follow back in your personal account, there’s no reason to limit who your
company follows. Also, the added benefit of following back everyone who follows your company account
is the ability to DM you.
4. Do not send an auto direct message whenever someone new follows you or your company. It’s easy to
get into the trap of automating your Twitter activity. Many people will set up an auto direct message (or
auto DM) to be sent to every new follower. This looks artificial, and could make you appear apathetic
about building true relationships with your customers.
39. 39
Twitter in 10 points
1. Check and participate in Twitter every day
2. Post what you would read
3. Proofread before you post
4. Keep a nice and friendly tone
5. Never ignore users interacting with you (except trolls and spammers)
6. Keep a professional image
7. Promote your business subtly
8. Be creative and innovative
9. Make the first step to make new contacts
10.Keep up to date with the new terminology and customs
40. References
Twitter Tutorials:
Twitter for Small Business
Other Tutorials:
HubSpot, How to Use Facebook for Business: An Introductory Guide
Jean-Christophe Barré, Dr. Andreas Schroeter, Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing
John Jantsch, Using Twitter for Business
Twitter Profile:
DMOD Laboratory
